US and Europe are already planning for a Ukrainian government-in-exile, should President Volodymyr Zelenskiy flee Kyiv.
CNN quoting western officials said discussions have ranged from supporting Zelenskiy and top Ukrainian officials in a potential move to Lviv in western Ukraine.
The talks have also considered the scenario should Zelensky and his aides flee Ukraine altogether and establish a new government in Poland, the officials said.
The discussions are only preliminary and no decisions have been made, the sources said.
Western officials have also been wary of discussing a government-in-exile directly with Zelenskiy, because he wants to stay in Kyiv.
So far, Zelenskiy has rejected conversations that focus on anything other than boosting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, two western diplomats explained.
They added that there have been discussions about sending one or more members of Zelenskiy’s government to an external location where a government could be set up in case Kyiv falls and Zelenskiy is unwilling or unable to get out.
“The Ukrainians have plans in place that I’m not going to talk about or get into any detail about to make sure that there is continuity of government one way or another, and I’m going to leave it at that,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CBS on Sunday.
US and European officials believed in the earlier days of the war that Zelenskiy moving to Lviv might be feasible because it was not clear whether Russia would target western Ukraine.
But now—given Russia’s dramatic escalation over the last several days against civilian targets across Ukraine—they are not as sure that Russia will spare any inch of Ukrainian territory.
